State senate votes to move primary election date

ATLANTA - The Georgia state Senate has passed a version of a bill intended to move the state's 2014 primary election date to May 20.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday that the primary date would be the earliest on record.

The proposal passed the Senate's Ethics Committee on Monday and senators in the full chamber voted 38-15 to pass the bill. The proposed legislation will now be presented in the state House of Representatives.

The proposed legislation would require all candidates to file campaign finance reports by March 31, and would make the state and partisan county primaries compatible with the state's federal primary schedule.

The proposal calls for candidate qualifying to run from March 3 to March 7.